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Your ability to stand out from the competition and forge a lasting impression in the minds of your ... [+] customers, can make or break the long-term success of your brand. Here are four time-tested ways to differentiate yourself.

Dennis Maliepaard on Unsplash

No company exists in a vacuum. Like it or not, your brand likely has several competitors that offer at least similar products or services. This can make it hard to differentiate your own company, particularly if you’re competing in a relatively crowded niche.

The good news is that with the right positioning and messaging, you can distance yourself from your competitors—enough to stand out in a way that’ll help you achieve rapid, scalable growth.

This sometimes subtle truth became abundantly clear when I recently spoke with Brent Hauver, president of Lakanto, as well as during a recent interview with Kevin Pugar, founder of Brightside. The biggest takeaway was that by following a few important guidelines, you can ensure your brand is distinct amongst a sea of competition.

Like many entrepreneurs, Pugar used his own problem to develop a product idea. It all started when he bought two pairs of luxury sunglasses that cost over $300. He immediately encountered a problem. “I didn’t even want to take my nice sunglasses to the beach. If these get scratched, or I lose them, I’d feel sick.”

As a result, Pugar decided to go online to see if he could find something that was made from quality materials without the same sticker shock. There wasn’t much on the market that fit the middle ground he was looking for.

“I just felt like there’s a gap in here, some room for a brand to come in and grab this segment of the market, so I started researching.” Pugar quickly discovered that most luxury sunglasses came at an astronomical markup to consumers, despite being handmade from higher-quality acetate.

Identifying the existence of a gap in the sunglasses marketplace—the lack of a middle ground between expensive luxury sunglasses and cheap corner store variants—was the basis for launching his own brand, centered around this built-in differentiating factor from the get-go.

2. Tell New Stories

Many consider your brand’s story to be the most valuable marketing asset you can have. According to the Harvard Business Review, 64% of customers who report having a trusted relationship with a company attribute it to shared values. These values are directly communicated through the stories you tell.

“A unique story has been an essential part of establishing our company’s image,” says Hauver.

He continues, “There are plenty of brands out there that offer sugar-free products. To stand out, our messaging highlights the story of why we use monk fruit in our products today, as well as its historical association with monks, who harvested and used monk fruit to increase chi. This is a new angle that customers haven’t heard before, which helps us stand out.”

There’s no denying that stories of ancient monks creates a far more distinctive visual than standard health food messaging. A unique story sticks in the memory. A clear voice communicates your persona and values in a way that highlights your differences from others in your space.

3. Break Into New Niches

Oftentimes, entrepreneurs have the greatest success in differentiating themselves from the competition, by picking a clear niche to break into. This doesn’t mean that the old audience is cast off entirely, though. The company instead looks for ways to make their product or service appeal to a brand new market.

“Expanding our messaging beyond just the idea of eating healthy has played a pivotal role in our growth,” Hauver explains. “By focusing on chi in addition to standard healthy living ideas, we can reach people who want to improve their lifestyle for reasons other than going sugar free. Brands should always look at ways they can make their product or service appealing to other groups aside from the ones they’re currently serving. This is where you could end up finding your biggest audience.”

Hauver’s experience somewhat parallels the Blue Ocean Strategy, which suggests that brands work hard to find relatively uncontested market space in order to reach new customers.

For example, Home Depot offers classes to teach average people how to complete DIY projects, making their store more accessible to non-experts. Nintendo’s Wii system became one of the biggest video game consoles of all time because of casual-friendly games and a control scheme that resulted in the system being used in unexpected places, like senior centers.

4. Know Your Industry

During my podcast interview with Pugar, he noted, “The best investment I’ve ever made has been the time I spent researching and understanding my industry.” Later, he elaborated on just how much time went into this process—from learning about the industry as a whole, to finding cost-effective models and even photographers who could help him present his products in the best light.

The better you understand your competitors, the easier it’ll be to identify the best approach for differentiating your brand within your niche. You can see where others are falling short in delivering a great customer experience and spot the strengths that are worth emulating.

After all, you can’t entirely break away from your competition if you want to reach your target audience. But by working to understand those customers better, you can present your brand in a way that’s familiar enough to attract the right audience, while remaining distinct enough to make a lasting impression.

Finding ways to distance your consumer brand from its competitors will require a lot of research and consistent hard work. But the results are well worth it. By creating a truly distinctive brand, you’ll stand out in the minds of your customers—so you can leverage a lasting place in the market.